Exploring social influence in crowdsourcing

This study addresses the phenomenon of social influence in crowdsourcing platforms and, inparticular, it sought to explore whether depending on personal, contextual or cultural, characteristics, individuals which participate in such endeavors are more or less prone to become influenced by a majority when performing an objective task. In crowdsourcing platforms individuals participate through different decision making mechanisms such as voting, averaging and consensus. The exposure to informational cues regarding the aggregate output of a crowd is hypothesized to constitute a pressure upon the individuals' behavior. Our findings provide evidence about the existence of and proneness to socialinfluence in crowdsourcing platforms. These research also showsthat skill level and homophilousties among participants are a stronghold against the pressures of the majorities. These results empirically demonstrate that in the presence of an informational cues a large amount of individuals accept majorities' outcomes as an evidence of the reality. Through the current findings, we provide insighton the phenomenon of social influence in crowdsourcing platforms and, by unveiling these results, give a contribution towards managing such platforms

O potencial conflito entre Marrocos e a Argélia : um foco de insegurança para a Península Ibérica

Neste IDN Brief é analisada a escalada de tensão entre Marrocos e a Argélia, no contexto da volátil situação no Sahara Ocidental. A possibilidade de um conflito armado numa fronteira da União Europeia poderá originar insegurança e pressão nos países europeus geograficamente mais próximos, incluindo uma eventual pressão migratória na Península Ibérica.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Potencialidades e Ameaças do Ativismo Jurídico Transnacional no Ativismo LGBTI no Continente Africano

Este artigo procura perceber de que forma os tribunais internacionais africanos estão a ser mobilizados pelos movimentos de ativismo LGBTI no continente. Face aos crescentes movimentos legislativos que criminalizam a homossexualidade, à resistência política da União Africana em abordar a questão e fragilizando o sistema regional africano de direitos humanos, os movimentos ativistas LGBTI adotaram a litigância como uma nova estratégia. Os tribunais internacionais são hoje uma arena para reivindicar os direitos humanos das pessoas LGBTI. Analisando a jurisprudência recente nos tribunais regionais africanos, este artigo conclui que estes tribunais são resistentes em conhecer estas questões, revelando-se uma estratégia ineficaz para o ativismo. Por outro lado, observa que a litigância é mais bem-sucedida nas jurisdições nacionais.This article aims to understand how the international African courts are being mobilized by the LGBTI activism in the continent. In view of the growing legislative movements that criminalize homosexuality and the African Union’s political resistance to addressing the issue and weakening the African regional human rights system, the LGBTI activist movements adopted litigation as a new strategy. International courts are nowadays a legal arena for claiming human rights for LGBTI people. Through the analysis of recent jurisprudence in African regional courts, this article concludes that these courts are resistant to addressing these issues, revealing an ineffective strategy for activism. On the other hand, it notes that litigation is more successful in national jurisdictions

The anti-homosexuality Act, 2014: legislação anti gay e a ameaça aos direitos humanos da população LGBTI no Uganda

A intolerância e da violência contra as minorias sexuais em África tem conquistado espaço em vários pontos do continente. As sodomy laws, uma herança colonial, ganham um novo revivalismo com novas reformas legislativas anti homossexualidade, em particular o caso do Uganda e do The Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2014. Este tipo de legislação configura uma séria ameaça às pessoas LGBTI e é o resultado de uma crescente homofobia que lavra em alguns países africanos e atinge as mais altas esferas do poder político e religioso. Trata-se de uma legislação discriminatória e injusta, que resulta numa maior marginalização e vulnerabilidade das minorias sexuais. Procurando um enquadramento global da situação das minorias sexuais no Uganda, este trabalho tem como ponto central de análise o The Anti- Homosexuality Act, 2014, o processo de introdução do projeto de lei no Parlamento do Uganda em 2009, e a sua aprovação, promulgação e posterior declaração de nulidade pelo Tribunal Constitucional em 2014. Procura também perceber o impacto desta legislação na vida das pessoas, em particular, as violações dos padrões internacionais de direitos humanos

Voltammetric quantification of fluoxetine: application to quality control and quality assurance processes

The oxidative behaviour of fluoxetine was studied at a glassy carbon electrode in various buffer systems and at different pH using cyclic, differential pulse and square wave voltammetry. A new square wave voltammetric method suitable for the quality control of fluoxetine in commercial formulations has been developed using a borate pH 9 buffer solution as supporting electrolyte. Under optimized conditions, a linear response was obtained in the range 10 to 16 μM with a detection limit of 1.0 μM. Validation parameters such as sensitivity, precision and accuracy were evaluated. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of fluoxetine in pharmaceutical formulations. The results were statistically compared with those obtained by the reference high-performance liquid chromatographic method. No significant differences were found between the methods

Land-use changes in the canary archipelago using the CORINE Data: a retrospective analysis

The relationships between territorial governance and the pursuit of sustainable development are evidenced to be critical. Exploratory tools, like Geographic Information Systems (GIS), enable us to comprehend the patterns, dynamics, and parameters of land-use changes over the years. The results from such studies could be used in the design of a sustainable territorial governance strategy. Contextually, a study has been conducted based on the changes that occurred in land uses in the Canary Archipelago in the years 1990, 2000, 2012, and 2018 using CORINE (Coordination of Information on the Environment) data. Even if most of the land uses have been stable over the analyzed period, the investigation shows a decrease in agricultural areas. By contrast, it is possible to verify an increase in semi-natural areas and urban agglomerations. Moreover, the authors believe that an assessment of the land-use changes on these ultra-peripheral areas will also enable us to disclose some obstacles and opportunities for sustained development.FCT—Foundation for Science and Technology to VALORIZAinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Modelação de autocarros em elementos finitos

Estágio realizado na CaetanoBus e orientado pelo Eng.º Mário Filipe Dias FernandesTese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Mecânica. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 201

Is Redshirting Beneficial for Reading Acquisition Success?

The controversy around the effect of academic redshirting on reading acquisition continues receiving attention in the international literature. However, few studies are known with non-English speaking children. In this study we intend to understand this phenomenon with 698 Portuguese speaking first graders, 360 girls (51.6%), aged between 5 years old and 8 months and 7 years old and 6 months (M = 6.3 months, SD = 3.9 months). Reading acquisition precursors were assessed namely phonemic awareness and letter-sound knowledge. Results reveal that 5.9% of first graders are redshirted. Clusters analysis indicated two clusters per variable. Cluster 1 with low phonemic awareness and letter-sound knowledge and low socioeconomic status, cluster 2 with high phonemic awareness and letter-sound knowledge and medium-high socioeconomic status. The cluster results suggest a prevalence of 24.5% children at risk of having learning difficulties. The MANOVA indicated that only socioeconomic status has an effect on phonemic awareness and letter-sound knowledge, with children from medium-high level presenting higher results. It is concluded that redshirting did not bring additional advantages for reading acquisition success. Implications about the importance of education in order to lessen those differences, as well as prevent difficulties are presented.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Coaching breve orientado para as soluções:projecto de avaliação da sua eficácia na prevenção do distress e na promoção do eustress em contexto profissional

Tese de mestrado, Psicologia (Secção de Psicologia dos Recursos Humanos, do Trabalho e das Organizações), 2009, Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da EducaçãoO stress profissional é imprescindível para o bom desempenho individual, dada a sua importância na gestão de desafios e ameaças no quotidiano. No entanto, a sua expressão como eustress parece proporcionar melhores índices de bem-estar e de desempenho do que a sua expressão como distress, o que tem levado a um crescente foco da literatura no desenvolvimento de conhecimentos e técnicas para a promoção do eustress no trabalho. Uma prática que visa corresponder a estes requisitos é o coaching breve orientado para as soluções (CBOS), que é uma aplicação em coaching dos princípios teórico-práticos da terapia breve orientada para as soluções. O CBOS visa a promoção de dimensões psicológicas como o optimismo, o coping focado na tarefa, o saborear dos desafios e dos momentos positivos, a internalidade de controlo, o sentido de coerência, a resiliência, e a auto-eficácia geral. A promoção destas dimensões é apontada pela pesquisa como sendo preventiva do surgimento de distress, e promotora da geração de eustress. É, portanto, expectável que uma técnica que promova o desenvolvimento individual destas características, como o CBOS procura fazer, também consiga produzir resultados positivos no que concerne à gestão do stress profissional, através da prevenção de sentimentos de distress e da geração de estados afectivos de eustress. O presente projecto visa expor um racional metodológico que permita testar esta possibilidade. O CBOS deverá ser aplicado na forma de business coaching, junto de uma amostra de profissionais, e o método proposto recorre à análise de dados quantitativos e qualitativos por meio de modelos de equações estruturais e de análise de conteúdo. São discutidos os resultados previstos, bem como as limitações do design de investigação. Propõem-se ainda direcções para pesquisa futura neste domínio.The experiencing of occupational stress is an essential condition for satisfactory individual performance, given the central role it plays in the management of everyday challenges and threats at work. Notwithstanding, its expression as eustress appears to provide for better well-being and performance results than happens for its distress configuration. This has led to a growing research focus on the development of valid techniques for the generation of eustress at work. Solution-focused brief coaching (SFBC), the coaching-form adaptation of the general principles and practices of solution-focused brief therapy, intends to be one such technique. It makes its hallmark to promote the development of psychological dimensions such as optimism, task-focused coping, the savoring of challenges and positive moments, an internal sense of control over events, a sense of coherence, resilience, and general self-efficacy. The promotion of these dimensions has been pointed out by past research as being preventive of feelings of distress, and promoting of the generation of eustress. Therefore, it is to be expected that a technique that will promote the individual development of such dimensions, as SFBC attempts to, will also show positive results insofar as concerns the management of occupational stress, via both the deterrence of feelings of distress, and the generation of affective states of eustress. This project attempts to lay out a methodological rationale by which this possibility may be empirically tested. SFBC is to be applied in the form of business coaching, on a sample of professional workers. The proposed method recurs to the analysis of quantitative and qualitative data, by means of SEM and content analysis. A discussion of the expected results ensues. The limitations to the research design are also debated, and directions for further research are proposed

Performance Analysis of XOR-Based Routing Protocols in Vehicular ad hoc Networks

This book is part of a series exploring the dynamic universe of the Internet in the 21st century. Collected here are papers discussing a wide range of topics and issues impacting and relating to the Internet such as: internet traffic conditioning methods applied to wireless networks; design knowledge management and sharing using XML; FGPA-Based video streaming; internet traffic modeling and an analysis of XOR-based flat routing protocols. (Imprint: Nova Press